Welcome

Welcome

This is a resource for people who want to buy an interesting bottle of wine on a budget of about $20. If you get lost between Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon and have access to a Dan Murphy's or Vintage Cellars (or Aldi, as of 2015!), you've come to the right place. Where possible, wines are listed with their single-bottle price from DM/VC/A and the winery's home page.

A good place to start is the 'Index', or if you know what type of wine you want, head straight to the 'Recommended Reds', 'Worthy Whites' or 'Stunning Sparklers' that only show 4 & 5 wines.

Your experience will be different to everyone else's, which makes wine such a pleasure. The same vintage wine at different ages will be distinct, as will the same aged wines from different vintages. What the glass holds is a unique parcel of time that should be enjoyed as such.

Saturday, 1 October 2016

(S) Frexinet: Gran Cuvée Brut NV "Elyssia" Cava, from Sant Sadurní d'Anoia, Penedes, Spain

Appearance
Pale gold with fine bubbles.

Smell
Subtly fruity, with green apples, white stone fruits & citrus aromas dominating.

Taste
Dry & quite acidic, with clean & razor-sharp flavours of almost-ripe apples, white peaches, lime cordial, a hint of sour cherry, with a very mineral & chalky mouthfeel. Plenty of bubbles give this a fine, but assertive mousse.

Tale
A marriage between two great Spanish wine families at a time when the Phylloxera epidemic was wrecking havoc on the local red wine industry, lead to the creation of a new cava-producing winery Freixenet. Despite first producing sparkling wine at the outbreak of WWI, this family-owned winery in the Penedes region, south of Barcelona, now sells more bottles of sparkling wine than anyone else in the world, making up 80% of the Spanish export market. Being a cava, the wines are all produced in the traditional method that is still used today in the Champagne region of France.

This Elyssia Gran Cuvée combines the traditional Champagne varieties of Chardonnary & Pinot Noir, with the local cava varieties Macabeo and Parellada. Whilst the Elyssia lacks some complexity & finesse of your typical Champagne, it's a great budget alternative, for those who want a quality NV bottle of bubbles at less than half the price of most entry-level Champages.

Price: $20
Quality: ☆☆☆☆
Value:  ☆☆☆☆

www.freixenet.com.au/TheWines/ElyssiaGrand.html
www.freixenet.co.uk/The-Range/Elyssia
www.danmurphys.com.au/product/DM_764140


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